What Others Say: Bad medicine

Obama prescribes ugly fix for Obamacare

President Obama's attempt to make good on his promise to let people keep their health insurance policies was politically inevitable. With the public howling, Democrats defecting and Republicans planning a vote to let insurers keep selling insurance that doesn't comply with the Affordable Care Act's tough new standards, he had to do something.

But political necessity doesn't guarantee good policy, and the president's plan is less a solution than it is a punt.

Mr. Obama announced that the administration would allow canceled plans to be renewed for at least a year, which will probably ease the complaints of more than 4 million people in the individual market who have received cancellation notices since the Obamacare online marketplaces opened on Oct. 1. But there will be a dangerous rebound effect.

People in the individual market tend to be healthy because insurers typically reject applicants with pre-existing conditions or other health risks. Premiums for the new health marketplaces were based on the expectation that those healthy people would move to the exchanges.

If, however, many healthy people elect to keep their existing policies, premiums could spike next year. The White House insists the law provides two separate funding streams to help offset insurer losses and keep the exchanges sound, but the insurance industry doesn't seem to be buying it, probably because, when the price increases come, insurers will unjustifiably get the blame.

The other big problem is that a lot of people still might not be able to keep policies they like. Insurers don't have to renew the expiring policies, and state insurance commissions don't have to approve them.

Already, at least one insurance commissioner - in Washington state - is refusing to let insurers renew policies that don't meet the new standards.

The president's exercise in blame-shifting looks good only in comparison with the GOP alternatives.

House Speaker John Boehner's plan - repeal the entire Affordable Care Act - would preserve an unsustainable status quo, leaving 40 million people uninsured and millions more at risk of going bankrupt if they get sick.

At his news conference last week, Mr. Obama repeatedly acknowledged that he and his aides had "fumbled" the rollout. Indeed, they did. What remains to be seen is whether they can recover before the entire law is undermined.

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What Others Say: Bad medicine

This editorial was published Friday in USA Today. President Obama's attempt to make good on his promise to let people keep their health insurance policies was politically inevitable.